Company Men **halfreality drama: salarymen high end and low end w/wo Porsche lost jobs high and low from mega company w ruthless boss

Reality movie about salarymen who face rounds of firing. Announcement of being fired, and everybody leaves with a paper carton. Ruthless cutting of posts while the big boss still gets millions of income. The high end commercial guys, the right hand man guy, the one who worked from bottom up guy, all fired. Young, "pushing 60", "pushing a little more than 60"; when the workers are let go, they all go to an intermediate retraining support office place where they are fortified with positive thinking. Meanwhile the young guy finally got up the nerve to take a construction site job to make ends meet. Many hopeful interviews failed, and finally, the "pushing 60" guy committed suicide which made the "pushing a little more than 60 right hand man" began setting up a buisness to rehire all the let go people, to make a new beginning. They start getting all these retro metal desks, hand stapler, in a warehouse, giving it a go and everybody is happy and hopeful. Life begins another round.

I see reality signs in this movie. Little nudity, though some high ranking admin people do sleep w each other. Wives of sweet income people wants "corporate plane" to take them on vacation... etc.Aside from these details, the movie is straight forward, tells a story, clear, one, two, three. Happy ending!

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

A stone sits quietly on open grass field. Its see through, someone came to earth via this Nomad vehicle. We now inspect it, like a scholar stone from all angles, and we could walk inside too, there may be inscriptions on the copper arms, we dont know what these inscriptions mean. It has some kind of secret code. Lets find out what its saying what further readings to follow?

N.B. The doll and car are set for scale purpose and is not part of the sculpture installation.The size of the see through stone as compared to a human size person in a small car.

The main character is a violent lower working class guy who engaged in special war zone mercenary work in Irak. Its the last chance to "make a bundle". While he could do it without too much thinking, his childhood friend engaged in the same work upon his introduction and got killed in unclear circumstances on the most dangerous place on earth, Route Irish. Before he died, he insisted on getting compensation for civilian victims who had been killed by error in a taxi. The circumstances of how he was killed was unclear. The boss explains that it was an accident. But he suspects its not only an accident. It was intentional that the boss sends his friend on frequent trips back and forth on the death route Irish to get rid of him - a trouble maker w too much scruples whos not suitable for this type of work, and who risks to drag the company down.

After many intriques, violent dangerous investigations, he came to believe another colleague who is more violent than others in his team was the "paid killer" for some reason. Much investigation, forced avowals, water tortures, the man agrees to say whatever he wanted him to say. But in the end, he found out, what he had forced out of the man was not the truth.

He discovered that its really all about money and ruthless sacrifice of the little guys for big money by the organsiers/company. Furious that he was used in this way, he plants a bomb in the car where he kills both company heads.

And then, he drowns himself in the river because he could never get back his old simple innocent self.

There was a romance sequence between the man and his best friends girl friend. Violent punching, slapping as seduction.

Whats interesting in this movie is the reality of the story. Violent people have their specific behaviors, love, reasoning, honor, responsibility, self respect - these all fit with each character. The big boss/company head are also tough rough skinned men - not only they are emotionally tough, they are inscrupulous - would sacrifice anyone if it harms the profit /business of the company. It is ran just a business like any other only worst, its usual routine is to kill any moving vehicles, person - in effect, ordinary harmless weaponless people.

Ken Loach once again makes a social injustice movie, revealing the underside of current events thats not spoken in the news. The dark side of life, the injustice, the underdog being had.

Monday, 25 April 2011

A stone sits quietly on open grass field. Its see through, someone came to earth via this Nomad vehicle. We now inspect it, like a scholar stone from all angles, and we could walk inside too, there may be inscriptions on the copper arms, we dont know what these inscriptions mean. It has some kind of secret code. Lets find out what its saying what further readings to follow?

Sunday, 24 April 2011

L'étranger **halfdrama: Turk immigrant community in European country (Germany)

The film is very well made technically. Many Aesthetic, beautiful individual scenes are well shot, subtle, actors and actresses v beautiful. Only fault is - and a big fault - the story seem to be forced: I dont understand how a woman of her beauty, kindness, charm, experience could not find a job in a big city. Many "turning points" to push the story forwards seem so incongruent.

The actress is so fine, so beautiful w quiet aura and intelligence, kindness, courage, how is it in the various scenes she does things like someone without any brains or smarts?

Umay the main character aborts - the scene very subtly shot. Scenario is very gd, abortion done secretly w support from an older woman in a clinic. The older woman asked kindly, are you alright, does it hurt? Setting in a barren type of suburban scrawl landscape, bustop. Immigrant land.

Then we go back to the house, very neat tidy, respectability, stability. Stiffling. She was locked inside her own room!! Umay wants to escape. Doors locked. She calls the police, police comes to take her out of the apt. Police seems to know about this type of situation. If a fine young woman decides to call the police to remove herself, this is already a drastic measure. She would be very careful not to put herself in further "no freedom" situation. But what follows are insouciance...

She eventually gets to her sisters wedding - in a long bare shoulder sexy gown - nobody else wears such gowns in the wedding. The director made a decision to high light Umay as the "guilty one, woman in red"? Clothing is wrong. Then she got rejected by the whole family. Once rejects, she squats outside w her son. He asks why he cant see his oncle ? She walks in turns the music off, gives a tearful speech about how this rejection makes her son a family less kid! This is illogical, unless the women is crazy. With such awkard presentation of the main issue (kid will be cut off from community if mom is not the obediant sacrificed femme au foyer). Umay is put outside the hall rejected completely. Imagine in real life, if somebody doesnt want you in a place, you tried once. Its already clear. You wouldnt repeat it second time with more force to the point of wrecking the festive occasion.

Everything happens with strange bumps along the story line. Illogical and forced.Umay is a beautiful girl, natural, she giggles laughs. Has a boyfriend she loves from work and, they even live together. Her family did not initiate a "kill her" command, it is only after she insisted on going back to relink that the father somehow decided on "Kill her" order. Which is humanly very unlikely, because this is a family of stability not in the little rough countryside without any sense of civic codes! They all speak German too, so even though they are Turks, I am not convinced that they would behave this way. Or, if they did, the director must prepare us innocent viewers that these people already are stricken w madness.

Her brothers, one w a gun, fails to shoot. The second with a dagger gives a thrust but stabs the boy, and maybe mortally kills him instead.Both brothers love Umay when they were young - pre alienation days.

Very beautiful and esthetic, but, illogical in story line. I am not convinced of the story. This severely damages the film and makes it superficial.

I would like to see how the mother of Umay really feels, some scenes of her doing something to show how she as a woman must feel towards Umay. Maybe forcefully thinking if i suffered myself, you too should not complain and do the same instead of dishonoring us... etc or she secretly does something... whatever route the mother takes, we need to see humanity from her to understand why this family is so stubborn and inhuman.

The father is shown to be human, but but but. Kill her!! "I am sorry my child..." Thats all? Very strange. He deserves more screen time too, more scenes w him is necessary too!The younger brother lies next to Umay on the bed, they are close, v gd. But what kind of brother is one thats so careless as to put a sensitive note in an open box so the other brother could intercept? The older brother is also v strange, he loves Umay when she was young and what happened? There are not enough scenes in the movie to see how the family structure from the Turk side, why are they the way they are?

Friday, 22 April 2011

On amateur film making: I asked a friend film maker prof; which students make most interesting films?, the answer was: the films made by design students are not so interesting because they only care about "if this looks good" or not, there is not much story whereas students from other departments, whether science, engineering, biology, they have a story of their own to tell.

La fille du Puisatier***French historical drama

At first I thought, another historical film nostalgic story telling based on a famous writer novel.Ok ok. The trailer has been playing for several weeks, so I say, ok, a break, here we go!

Its a very fine movie. Though I am not crazy about any of the actors in the film, but the text, the dialogue - maybe its quotation from Marcel Pagnol himself - so moving coming from the lips of Daniel Auteil. The gravity of the situation, the women's position in society. Sabine Azema - actress who plays certain roles so far I have never liked any of her characters - here also unsympathetic but the character is truthful in a believable way.

I think the Philippe character is the most likeable and of course the baby!The male lead has something very lean and mean in his face, you would think he is not likely to want to follow up w his one night fling... but he did in a forced non comittal way - which is realistic. It is believable in life.

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

About a University student who prostitutes herself and using the small amount of money gathered attempts to buy an apartment to be free of her stagnant life situation. In the movie there is very few nudity sex scenes, just one. She seemed to be unafraid of the sordid side of her trade - all the "clients" are weird, overweight, sadistic, old looking. They need professional sex for whatever reason. However, the Slovenian girl at the same time maintains an innocent pure, daughterly love towards her father. The choice of actors - casting is very good. None of the characters are adorable apart from the girl and her classmate, the professor, and the father. Everybody else are ordinary people w damaged, dented appeal. Watching this movie makes me think, how does someone grow so fat? When the person is a child, he was not fat like this? How does a mean mouthed person become this way?

The father, ex-band local music group member, current taxi driver is a soft hearted nice man. He loves music, not exceptionally good at it to make it to the big times, but still maintains an interest enough to re-start an old band with other old friends. (Hes not professional because in reviving old equipments, he electrocutes his friend; not pro. The script is so good, the whole character scenes sets the situation in an efficient way.) These people are old rockers, all over weight, flabby, in some odd jobs. They will play in their small town, in their community. The mother, mean mouthed woman who remarried? She has a small boy w her obviously a half brother - much more well taken cared of looking kid. Just from the short dialogue we understand she must have left her soft hearted husband - girls father - for a better life. Very succint use of interchange to explain the girls background, why she is in her situation and what is the motivation of getting out and how impossible this task is.

The Slovenian Girl is a student who used this code name as call girl. She encounters riff raff - people who force independant prostitutes to be pimped by them for "protection". Often her service is not paid due to the hooligan nature of the clients. Is this true? Prostitutes are not allowed to work independantly? She ran away from these murky leeches - but I wonder from the story construction, if she is so strong willed, wouldnt she have prepared enough to protect herself in some way? The mix of naivete and danger, fear is not coherent. Either she has the guts to go through w it and smart enough to make sure it works or, she couldnt have come this far. The character of the girl is not convincing - but she is very likeable. The professor looks like a professor and is soft hearted. Coerced into giving her a passing grade.

The whole movie is stifling, sad and bleak. There were only two people in the projection room, me and another person sitting far behind on last row.

Good movie, I like to see scenarios backgrounds - the setting of stories. If the setting is not convincing, the rest of the story, prettiness of the actrice etc, will not help to make the film work. I like the way the father eats his eggs, carefully taking his time, lovingly sprinkled pepper evently on the sunnyside yolks. One yolk then the other. The camera lingers very long on the eggs - when you think for the duration of this movie - it is to show simple food pleasure - for people who has not much luxury, eating eggs in style is a kind of luxury. A thoughtful gift from the daughter to the father, an electric pepper grinder! All detail touches of this style are so fine.

Winnie the Pooh ***Disney animation based on AA Milne Winnie the Pooh.

Very beautiful water color drawings, and contemporary art play of animation on fonts from the printed book.

The bear interacts with words on the page, falls on the letters, drops down, uses it as a ladder piled up to climb out of a hole etc. Tigger, Piglet, Owl, Jean-Christophe, Pooh, everybody has a clear character. Very soft and consistent reassuring players.

For young viewers from 4 onwards. At the end of the movie, the cinema gives out "diplomas" for kids - for having watched their first film in life!!

Will post the diploma here to show you.So nice. Good preparation for positive experiences, lucky kids!

劍雨 Reign of Assassins**halfKungfu /romance

A John Woo action flick with interesting storyline twists. Scenarios, in beautiful Chinese courtyard houses, w very beautiful literati furnitures (no real life cloth vendor lives in such a house!!) Girl fighters - all pretty from all ages - some in nudes, love story with an aging teacher/eunuch/master thief. Floppy twisting swords, handsome men. Magical doctor who could change face of patients and cure all blood lost fighting wounds. Special potion "turtle breath powder" - to feign death in order to escape dangerous situations, stops heart beat for a few hours. Magic formula to regrow organs, cure illness etc, the eunuch wants to grow himself a male member to be with his trainee loved one! Complicated plot, lots of fighting. But these moves are all choreographed with wires no one really has the real kungfu. We have seen all these dancing bodies before.

Outstanding point is the costumes and overall esthetics, very elegant colors and nice use of complementary colors for the entire sets.

Where to go next for kung fu films?The romance motor of the film is not convincing. Could be convincing but didnt spend enough time to develop the love element. We cannot believe such a handsome man, and gd looking gal cant afford to buy a tofu roll? Somebody has to do more finer emotional story work in this area to match the level of eye candy costumes/sets.

Michelle Yeoh is the body movement professional here, but she is always a little cold in presentation. How to make a convincing romance with this character? Shes good in what she does. But needs a special script to highlight the "cold inner emotional" capacity of her persona if this is her new challenge.

Monday, 18 April 2011

At first i thought it was a rerun of an old animation film, such is the style of the illustration, the colors, the fonts used. But then I see John Lasseter's name at the end, and yes, its a recent film.

Very pretty, sweet story w believable standard stereotypical characters. New Orleans carnaval, monkeys, bad poachers of rare birds, freedom versus in cage, love conquers all, lazy fun prince w working hard class, workaholic princess, they dream of having their restaurant? This part is a little hard to fold into a perfect ending. But who cares? Its a fairy tale!! Very nice music, accents, habits, crocrodile trumpet player who scares everyone off the boat - but for one evening, during the Carnaval, people think hes in disquise and he gets his dream! etc etc

Watching this movie makes me think, Disney is a wonderful great artist! He manage to create dreams for adults and kids alike! Disney land is a real life version of this virtual 2D cartoon world.

Apparently he collaborated with Salvador Dali on an animation film in the 60s, but it was not released because not "mass appeal" enough. Walt Disney signed his name along w Dali on the credits side by side. I do think after seeing the animation, that the two are very similar. There are magic moments that are more than the Disney usual stuff, but all the same, Disney is magnificent! Maybe because I was also fed the Disney stuff since little so I am nostalgic towards these cute sweet things! I thought i wouldnt like Disney Land, but a friend took me there one time - the Paris Disneyland - I like it!! Its so well made!

Friend Me Robot installation, different sizes possible. Giant as shown on poster, or human scale, or desk top version.

2D barcode pixel cube unit

Robot Event participants in front of a display

Quincy Dagger, winner of Rover Robot Contest; you phone in to the number provided by the exhibition and using voice can direct his bot forwards backwards etc. The only entry that has a real time active functioning robot.

Almost everybody elses are variations of dreams of Jo Job robot, dust, clean save the world - using super metal, but no model in real life - never mind about a working model.

Robotic Dog project: One of the display is a robotic dog for companionship for the elderly. It takes in the account of human emotion needs. However, I find that sooo sad. Elderly people want to talk to real young people, not a rough robotic dog which you have to push a button to get a "pill" reminder delivered on a stick coming from the robotic dog. The robotic dog better look very cute too, otherwise, it wont do. Better to use the energy to train real human to have more human kindness than to script a robot to give mechanical feedback to people. Better use of ressources I think. This Project received 2nd prize.

Swann's "Friend me!" robot is a human emotional trigger robot - if you fancy this robot, it will do things for you. If you dont fancy it, then you shoudl choose another type of robot, and this one is not for you. Because you love it, you entertain relations w it. It is a working robot, but the work is performed by the owner. The robot only triggers emotions the desire of the owner to move it, fill it with friends, interact with it, take it along. Like a talisman with abstract supports from 20 friends. This project received Honorable Mention prize. The judge asked: "How is this a robot?", Swann said, "It looks like a robot, so it qualifies as a robot". Actually, there is a whole field of robot which exists as love object robots and nobody would deny their status a robots, even if its as robotic as any scholarly stone on a pedestal.

If the owner doesnt have 20 friends to put in the housing cubes, perhaps he could take this occasion to start making friends now, enjoy it, one at a time.:)

Saturday, 16 April 2011

Very beautiful birds with magnificent colors, textures of the feathers, clothing. Nice story line, Brazil, Rio, Favelas, children forced to kidnap birds for money, Carnaval, all superbe. Music, samba... wonderful story. Saw it in 2D, in fact a lot of the 3D films are v gd, but wearing these 3D glasses is a bother. The film is just as good in 2D.

Monday, 11 April 2011

Robot no1, this week is Robot week at IEEE learn how to build your own robot in sl, classes!

Robot no3 w Robot no1, Robot no2 is too big to be in the picture. He is here.

Robot no2: A Japanese robot that Swannjiejie has assembled, now figure out how to program the robot.

Elm Bonsai

I bought a Bonsai in Tainan last year, from a man who was selling them next to the sports center. He has a few pots, no licence, just somebody trying to sell a few trees. Tiny the size of a quarter of a cup, or an expresso cup. There were a few leaves on the twig.I said, how do I know it is living? Why are there so few leaves, and they are yellow, falling?He said, its autumn, thats the season when tree leaves turn yellow. You must water sparingly and dont forget to repot immediately after you get home. I didnt tell him where the tree will live.

He wrote down the name of the tree for me on a piece of paper. 榆 = Yu

I bought a small plastic case, and carefully pack the tree in this box and we arrived home safely. However, the leaves continue to fall, and became just a twig.

The vendor said, put the tree outside, it must stay outside. I said, even if its cold?He said yes. You must take him out every few days for air.

So I left the tree outside all winter on my window sill.

And now, the plum trees, the chestnut trees, every tree outside has blossomed and pushing green leaves.

I look at my twig on the window sill, upon careful inspection, I see a tiny 1mm green spot on one of the teeny tiny bulbs.

I inspected him everyday. And yesterday, i see an elaborate spider has made home next to the tree! A real microcosm!

With a magnifying glass, I see several bulbs are pushing green spots!!

Thursday, 7 April 2011

Pina***3D by Wim WenderDancers, moves, talks about their experiences, and their relation with Pina Bausch Grand Dame of the dance.

Titeuf***3DThe 3D effect is like a layering of 2D transparencies.Very nice story, very french authentic small common families, grandma, grandpa, mother leaving father for another man, but able to tell the child about this. All very soft and kind, nothing bitter or complicated as in real life. The father is like a father, tired, he listened, half hearted but complies w Titeufs demand. All very authentic human, and humorous. Its not the Disney all sugar and spice and everything nice. For kids and adults alike.Some animation movies are sooooo nice, that its very hard for adults to watch - no matter how beautiful the drawing are. The story determines a films success.

« Nous , princesses de Clèves »***Documentary of high school kids in Princesses de Clève a story by Madame LaFayette, how they interpret a classic story and how they related the main character of the classical piece to their own current everyday lives. Their highschool diploma (Bac) their love stories, family history... very rich. And the framing of the camera work is very good. Many sensitive big close ups. All the young girls are appreciated by the camera - they all have beauty in the becoming, we see imperfect skins but that is normal, teenagers, they have hormone problems. In Chinese, they call these acme, "youths beans". What is very impressive is that, no matter how they perform in scholarly matters, they are all very articulate. (Maybe the inarticulate ones are not shown in the movie?) Very beautiful movie.

LA NOSTRA VITA (Our Life) ***halfVitality, this movie is full of energy, reality. Very good details, nothing is all glossy and not all sad, every character, from a drug dealer in a wheel chair, to the guardian who fell to his death and buried without a trace, to the constractor chief, to the new contractor to be doing his first job, to the handsome brother who has been wounded by an ex-girl friend and became fearful - but what a handsome man, gentle, policeman, the dream man any woman would love to be with - the Roumanian woman in Italy being looked down by Italians, not a lot just slightly, the son tells her not to speak Roumanian in public...everything is human. First time I see a movie where its mainly men, man working in building, baby sitting, taking children onto the work site... everything moves with raw speed and energy. Reminds me of the movies Sophia Loren was in the Italian realism tradition. The way men play w children, trying to be a good father. He tries to replace whats missing with money. The Roumanian boy who didnt know his father died on site yet was suspicious all along, he queries the things around him, watching all along - because even though his own father is less than his desire, he was his father - he joins this family of father and three sons, helps with chores inside the house. The story is very well constructed. If the helper were a woman - which is quite common in such cases - we would imagine some romantic stories coming out of that, but its one fat boy who knows nothing and has to be taught from zero, he was also a kind of family.Then, he tells him, yes, he knew his father. The tragedy. They got close enough for him to tell the truth at a moment of despair. He is in a bad state as well while the fat boy tells him, everything is going to be ok, dont worry.

He calls in the special service of moon lighters, they work 24hr around the clock, with a sister in law as cook, so no waste of time; boom boom booom! Work is done, you pay and alls well. This is the famous Italian economic model, the workers - all Italians and no immigrants! know how to do the job they are professional builders. They have a proper job in day time, he calls in sick for 2 days and moon lights for this extra money. Thats how the society works in tough times. Scratch hard enough and everybody finds a way out. The immigrant team are lean and hungry, they are not professionals, they are child psychologist, etc with a proper job in their home country but here, in Italian, they do illegal construction work and must hide when the police comes, they dont want to do this work, its not their profession. The film shows all angles of a situation, very efficiently with just a few words, its shown.

Human, little folks with everyday money, accident, love problems.(We are glad to see things evolving, people find each other, holding hands timidly, etc, life goes on, and the only thing worst that can happen is someone who has no life at all.)

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Combination of aircraft, nature, simplicity - its Generic Floralis, mother of all flowers by a great architect/artist. He created this giant flower at age 82. 13months of construction time by aircraft factory Lockheed Martin.

The Kite Runner 2*I liked the scenery, the content, and the balanced way of telling the story, the film crew was a large Chinese group... the sentiments shown is very Asian. An Asian film in essence.Max (an animation film with resine figurines, Swiss) 1*Fell asleep, graphics totally unattractive, story very old value, the sex roles of the characters are sooooooo ooooold and stale, I simply fell asleep.Peur(s) du noir (animation film) 3*Strong showLa Jeune Fille et les loups 2.5*good story well toldPromets moi 2.5*noisy music, in keeping w the directors usual style.Cortex 2*reminds me, how does it feel like to be in an old folks home? and be treated like a dependant? a fine film showing humiliation and helplessness of the aged... We must take care of our parents when they get old... you wouldnt want to be put into an old folks home.Enfin Veuve 1*empty silliness. bourgeoise distraction.La Fanfare 2.5*Asian Oriental feel, the star is snappy, sassy, very interesting.Lust Caution 3*hmmm. the script has some problems...La Graine et le mulet 4*charming, brave, authentic, kind, i feel closer to the North Afracan immigrants after seeing this movie. Human, warmth, and what belly dancing could means.

Inventions needed :

A computer display which has the capacity of the sun :sl is an extension of rl for me, growing longer fingers, and coming back, the air is sweeter. Only thing I dont like is having to look at a lcd screen - I know how people get such pale faces and panda eyes now... maybe we should invent a computer that is like the sun, gives us warmth and a golden glow?

DDC :: Guangdong -> Paris

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